here, else I should have taken the liberty of Han nibal's ring.

Pray thank Gifford for all his goodnesses. The winter is as cold here as Parry's polarities. I must now take a canter in the forest; my horses are waiting.

Yours ever and truly,

Lord Byron to Mr. Murray.

BYRON.

Ravenna, February 2, 1821.

YOUR letter of excuses has arrived. I receive the letter, but do not admit the excuses, except in courtesy; as when a man treads on your toes, and begs your pardon, the pardon is granted, but the joint aches, especially if there be a corn upon it. However, I shall scold you presently.

In the last speech of the Doge, there occurs (I think, from memory,) the phrase,

"And Thou who makest and unmakest suns!" Change this to,

And Thou who kindlest and who quenchest suns!" this is to say, if the verse runs equally well, and Mr. Gifford thinks the expression improved. Pray have the bounty to attend to this. You are grown quite a minister of state. Mind if some of these days you are not thrown out.

You have learned one secret from Mr. Galignani's (somewhat tardily acknowledged) correspondence this is, that an English author may dispose of his exclusive copyright in France-a fact of some consequence (in time of peace) in the case of a popular writer. Now, I will tell you what you shall do, and take no advantage of you, though you

were scurvy enough never to acknowledge my letter for three months. Offer Galignani the refusal of the copyright in France; if he refuses, appoint any bookseller in France you please, and I will sign any assignment you please, and it shall never cost you a sou on my account.

Recollect that I will have nothing to do with it, except as far as it may secure the copyright to yourself. I will have no bargain but with the English booksellers, and I desire no interest out of that country.

Now, that's fair and open, and a little handsomer than your dodging silence, to see what would come of it. You are an excellent fellow, mio caro Moray, but there is still a little leaven of Flect-street about you now and then-a crum of the old loaf. You have no right to act suspiciously with me, for I have given you no reason. I shall always be frank with you; as, for instance, whenever you talk with the votaries of Apollo arithmetically, it should be in guineas, not pounds-to poets, as well as physicians, and bidders at auctions.

am

I shall say no more at this present, save that I Yours, &c.

BYRON.

P.S. If you venture, as you say, to Ravenna this year, I will exercise the rites of hospitality while you live, and bury you handsomely (though not in holy ground) if you get "shot or slashed in a creagh or splore," which are rather frequent here of late among the native parties. But perhaps your visit may be anticipated: I may probably come to your country; in which case write to her ladyship the duplicate of the epistle the King of France wrote to Prince John.

John Dryden to Jacob Tonson.

MR. TONSON,

October the 29th, [1695.]

SOME kind of intercourse must be carried on betwixt us while I am translating Virgil. Therefore I give you notice that I have done the seventh Eneid in the country; and intend, some few days hence, to go upon the eighth: when that is finished, I expect fiity pounds in good silver; not such as I have had formerly. I am not obliged to take gold,* neither will I; nor stay for it beyond four-andtwenty hours after it is due. I thank you for the civility of your last letter in the country; but the thirty shillings upon every book remains with me. You always intended I should get nothing by the second subscriptions, as I found from first to last. And your promise to Mr. Congreve, that you had found a way for my benefit, which was an encouragement to my pains, came at last for me to desire Sir Godfrey Kneller and Mr. Closterman to gather for me. I then told Mr. Congreve that I knew you too well to believe you meant me any kindness: and he promised me to believe accordingly of you, if you did not. But this is past; and you shall have your bargain, if I live and have my health. You may send me word what you have done in my business with the Earl of Derby; and I must have a place for the Duke of Devonshire. Some of your friends will be glad to take back their three guineas. The Countess of Macclesfield gave her money to Will. Plowden before Christmas; but he remembered it not, and paid it not in. Mr. Aston tells me my Lord Derby expects but one book.

*Both the gold and silver coin were at this time much depreciated.

I find my Lord Chesterfield and my Lord Petre are both left out; but my Lady Macclesfield must have a place, if I can possibly; and Will. Plowden shall pay you in three guineas, if I can obtain so much favour from you: I desire neither excuses nor reasons from you, for I am but too well satisfied already. The notes and prefaces shall be short, because you shall get the more by saving paper. JOHN DRYDEN.

SIR,

John Dryden to Jacob Tonson.

Friday forenoon, [Feb. 1695-6?]

I RECEIVED your letter very kindly, because, indeed, I expected none; but thought you as very a tradesman as Bentley,* who has cursed our Virgil so heartily. I shall lose enough by your bill upon Mr. Knight; for after having taken it all in silver, and not in half-crowns neither, but shillings and sixpences, none of the money will go; for which reason I have sent it all back again, and, as the less loss, will receive it in guineas, at twenty-nine shillings each. "Tis troublesome to be a loser, but it was my own fault to accept it this way, which I did to avoid more trouble.

I am not sorry that you will not allow any thing towards the notes; for to make them good would have cost me half a year's time at least. Those I write shall be only marginal, to help the unlearned, who understand not the poetical fables. The prefaces, as I intend them, will be somewhat more learned. It would require seven years to translate Virgil exactly. But I promise you once more to

* Richard Bentley, a pookseller and printer.

do my best in the four remaining books, as I have hitherto done in the foregoing. Upon trial, I find all of your trade are sharpers, and you not more than others therefore I have not wholly left you. Mr. Aston does not blame you for getting as good a bargain as you could, though I could have got a hundred pounds more; and you might have spared all your trouble, if you had thought fit to publish the proposals for the first subscriptions; for I have guineas offered me every day, if there had been room; I believe, modestly speaking, I have refused already twenty-five. I mislike nothing in your letter, therefore, but only your upbraiding me with the public encouragement, and my own reputation concerned in the notes; when I assure you I could not make them to my mind in less than half a year's time. Get the first half of Virgil transcribed as soon as possibly you can, that I may put the notes to it; and you may have the other four books, which lie ready for you, when you bring the former, that the press may stay as little as possibly it can. My Lord Chesterfield has been to visit me, but I durst say nothing of Virgil to him, for fear there should be no void place for him: if there be, let me know; and tell me whether you have made room for the Duke of Devonshire. Having no silver by me, I desire my Lord Derby's money, deducting your own; and let it be good, if you desire to oblige me, who am not your enemy, and may be your friend,

JOHN DRYDEN.

Let me hear from you as speedily as you can 9